The textile sector of Pakistan has recently brought into the light, some serious issues faced by the workers in Pakistan. To address the matter in detail, The National Labor Council (NLC) and the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER) have shown serious concerns on the violation of the Labor laws by the textile brands. The highlighted issues include unsafe working environment and not considering the rights and demands of workers.
Said by the officials was that the “textile manufacturer had removed 32 workers before Ramazan and had not reinstated them despite protests and instructions from the NIRC.” In a statement issued here on Sunday, NLC and PILER leaders including Karamat Ali, Latif Nizamani, and few others said that these textile brand manufacturers often provide third-party employment to workers and pay them wages, in many cases, less than the official minimum wages for unskilled workers that are fixed at Rs15,000 per month. Besides these very low wages, the workers are also not given any kind of compensations like paid leaves for emergency or else.
Recently, complaints from workers have come up including increased working hours and no payment for this overtime. At times when the owners get additional demands, they place more pressure on the workers and give them no relief in return. Further said was that the working conditions are not safe and the production setups are entirely different than the outlets we can see in the markets.
The responsibility of the situation is placed on the provincial labour department as it is their responsibility to ensure a safe and healthy working environment with a better return to the hard work of the workers. According to the labour leaders, there is a small number of labour inspectors working in the field and it is now the time to take sound measure to ensure the security of the workers.
